UK’s age check mandate, Grok gets it wrong (again) and Singaporean mods shine
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.
It's an age-old truism that digital policy rarely travels cleanly across borders but, in this week's stories from the UK, Australia and France, that is particularly noticeable. Where this leaves the future of age assurance technology is anyone's guess right now.
That didn't stop me trying to unpack what it all means in this week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech with the brilliant Bridget Todd, co-host of the There Are No Girls On The Internet and IRL podcasts. Few know internet culture like her so its definitely worth your time. Mike will be back on co-hosting duties next week.
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New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Ofcom has claimed a major win after a host of sites with pornography, including Pornhub, agreed to bring in age checks by 25 July, when its Children’s Codes become enforceable. Aylo — Pornhub’s parent company — told the BBC that it was happy to proceed because Ofcom’s model was “the most robust in terms of actual and meaningful protection we've seen to date” and it had engaged “with industry in good faith”. That’s a big win for the UK regulator.
Ironically, the news came just days after two related announcements:
- Pornhub and other adult websites were allowed back online in France after a Paris court ruled against a government decision to enforce verification (EiM #295) while it investigates whether its compatible with EU rules. I touched about the national vs supranational stand-off a few weeks back (EiM #294) and it looks like it’ll run and run.
- Preliminary findings of Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial found “a vibrant, creative and innovative” sector and a “plethora of approaches” but also concerns about tools susceptible to AI-spoofing and also designed to enable regulatory compliance. The Guardian has a write-up and the full report is due on ministers’ desks in July.
In not-unrelated news, there are some interesting nuggets in this bi-annual online harms survey of 2,000 adults and 1,000 UK children, which found an 8pp% increase in the number of 9-17 year olds that have experienced harm in the last 12 months. However, two things to note about the Internet Matters research: